Angelos Merges was born in 1989 in Chios, Greece. He received an Integrated Master from Athens School of Fine Arts in the direction of Painting in 2020 and a Master in Fine Arts from Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in 2023. He lives and works between Zürich, Switzerland and Athens, Greece.
Solo exhibitions
2025 Off Season, Kalfayan Galleries, Athens
2024 pilgrims, Modern Animals gallery, Zurich
2020 Family of Man, ASFA Degree Show, Athens
2018 World’s Material, Melanithros art space, Athens
Selected group exhibitions & Duo exhibitions
2025 Werkschau 2025 | Kanton Zürich, Kunst Museum Winterthur, Winterthur
2025 Grosse Regionale 2025, Kunst(Zeug)Haus, Rapperswil
2025 Why Look at Animals?, National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), Athens
2025 Theorimata IV - Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art Municipal Gallery of Athens
2025 Oltre la Pietra, Castelgrande, Bellinzona
2025 Earthly Things - Ghostly Matters, Zeughausareal, Uster
2024 Jungkunst, Halle 710, Winterthur
2024 Werkstipendien der Stadt Zürich, Helmhaus, Zurich
2024 The Radiance of Earthen Bonds, Duo show with Aline Witschi, FOMO art space, Zurich
2023 Visarte: "Einsichten 2023 and Friends", with FOMO art space, Photobastei, Zurich
2023 Visarte: "Einsichten 2023 and Friends", with Hotel Tiger art space, Photobastei, Zurich
2023 ENCORE: New Greek Painting, Municipal Gallery of Athens
2023 Sunburn, Studio West - London, online
2022 An exemplary Art Show, Hotel Tiger offspace, Zurich
2022 Mataroa Awards, Art Thessaloniki Fair, Thessaloniki
2022 IN THE OTHER ROOM, Sonnenstube offspace, Lugano
2022 Soft Underbelly, Zoumboulaki gallery, Athens
2022 Graduates 2020-21 Seniors 2022, 16 Fokionos Negri, Athens
2021 21!, Archaeological Museum of Agios Nikolaos, Crete
2021 Reality Check, StandInLine Gallery, Nicosia, Cyprus
2021 Back to Athens – Day Wavers, Isaia Megaron, Athens
2021 On a Small Scale, ALMA Gallery, Athens
2021 Carnival - Behind the masks, Skoufa Gallery, Athens
2020 The space of emplacement, Space52, online
2020 Platforms Project NET 2020, online
2019 The shaped Body, Stegi Grammaton kai Technon Aminteou, Florina
2019 Young_Artists, Balkan Art Gallery, Xanthi
2019 150 years Greek Railway, TrainOSE Contest, Engine room of Pireaus
2018 Visualization of Kiki Dimoula, Institut Français d'Athènes, Patra
Exhibitions with ACHT! collective
2021 Chromophobia II, Nitra Gallery, Thessaloniki
2021 Chromophobia, Nitra Gallery, Athens
2021 Things can only get better - Group Show, Skoufa Gallery, Mykonos
Art Fairs
2025 Art Basel Miami Beach with Kalfayan Galleries, Miami
2025 Frieze London with Kalfayan Galleries, London
2025 Vima Art Fair with Kalfayan Galleries, Limasol
2025 Art Athina with Kalfayan Galleries, Athens
2024 Art Athina with Kalfayan Galleries, Athens
2024 Art Athina with ACHT! collective and Nitra Gallery, Athens
2022 Mataroa Awards, Art Thessaloniki Fair, Thessaloniki
2021 Art Athina Pop Up, with ACHT! collective and Nitra Gallery, King George, Athens
Awards
2024 City of Zurich Art Grants (nominated)
2022 Zangger Weber Scholarship
2022 Heinrich Hintermeister Award
2022 Hirschmann Stipendium Award
2022 Mataroa Award (nominated)
2019 TrainOSE, 150 years Greek Railway Award
Publications & Interviews
2025 Lifo Culture, lifo.gr, article by Christos Paridis
2024 Decoding Zurich’s Art Scene, collegium.ethz.ch Collegium Helveticum,
interviewed by Anna Lugovska
2024 Stadtfilter Empfiehlt, soundcloud.com Stadtfilter Radio, interviewed by Ursina Ingold
2024 Art Verge, artverge.com, interviewed by Yannis Kostarias
2020 The Art Newspaper Greece, issue no. 251, interviewed by Fotini Kapiris
Talks
2025 Talks on Artists’ Rights, Panel discussion organized by Association Rights in the Arts
Zurich Art Weekend Event
Residency Programs
2022 Shared Campus Summer School, Rivers Jugular Veins of Empire, London
2021 Centre for Polish Sculpture, Orońsko
2021 Ktirio 1, Vogiatzoglou Museum, ACHT! collective, Athens
2015 Philoxenia Workshop, Festivart, Loutraki
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Angelos Merges' painting compositions deal with current social issues while exploring painting strategies that correspond to the post-analog era.
Strongly influenced by recent events that reshaped the socio-political landscape of Greece, his interest focuses on themes that revolve around the notion of liminality as a human condition. In his work, events that occurred over the last decade and personal memories blend, producing a series of images that are interpreted without being explained. Issues that emerged during the economic and refugee crisis meet memories from growing up in the island of Chios, his homeland, creating ambiguous images that oscillate between the intimate and the unfamiliar.
The series of paintings form open-ended narratives offering an intermediate space that prompts the viewers to position themselves and to fill in the narrative based on their own perceptions. In the depicted scenes, the exposed and the unseen, the initiated and the outsider seem to be in constant exchange in an attempt to raise questions about shifts of perspective and positions of power.
Belonging to a generation of artists who grew up during the time of digital outburst, he approaches painting as a medium that enables the artist to focus on content and method in an era where screen culture holds a dominant role in everyday life.